A testa di moro does not go wherever there is room. It has a face, and the house answers accordingly: too low and you look down at it and it goes out, in front of a window and it turns into a black silhouette. Below are nine situations at home where it works, and what changes in each.
Nine ways, not nine rules. The technical part, meaning how high the surface should be, what background to set it against and how far from the edge, is handled separately.
What to look at before choosing the room
Three things about the piece decide nearly all the rest.
- It has a front. Unlike a vase it is not the same from every side: there is a face made to be looked at and a back that usually ends up against the wall. That rules out any position where you only ever see it from behind.
- It is heavy. Glazed terracotta has a mass you feel, and a thin or cantilevered shelf shows it. The surface that holds it needs to be a solid one.
- It has a finish. Mother of pearl, blue and orange, white line, gold and lustres: each behaves differently next to the materials already in the house.
Nine ways to use one at home
1. On the entrance console
This is the placement with the most history behind it, and the only one that carries a meaning of its own in Sicilian tradition. Whoever comes in meets it before anything else, and that changes how it should be turned and how it sits next to the mirror.
2. In the living room, inside the bookcase
A long wall of spines tires the eye. A head set on one of the shelves breaks the run and gives somewhere to stop. It gives far more if the shelf stays half empty: ceramic needs air around it to read as an object rather than as filler.
Recurring mistake: wedging it between the books until it touches the volumes on either side. In that state it stops being distinguishable from the rest of the shelf.
3. On the mantelpiece
A fireplace is already a place the eye goes on its own, so the piece works downhill. The mantel is usually higher than an ordinary cabinet, and that helps: the face comes close to the eye level of someone standing. One piece, centred, holds the wall better than three objects in a row.
Watch out: if the fire is lit often, direct heat and soot are a maintenance problem rather than an aesthetic one.
4. On the sideboard in the dining area
The sideboard is the most generous surface in the house and carries the larger formats too, the ones above 40 cm, roughly 16 inches. Here the head competes with nothing: it stands against a wall, you look at it while seated at the table, and sitting down changes the angle on the face compared with walking past it standing.
5. In the middle of the table, but low
On a dining table only a contained format works. The small sizes in the catalogue, the 15 and 20 cm ones, about 6 to 8 inches, let the eye pass between one guest and the next. A tall piece in the centre interrupts the conversation, literally: the people opposite can no longer see each other's faces.
6. In the bedroom, on the chest of drawers
The bedroom is the room where an object gets looked at most calmly, and where the pale finishes give their best. A chest of drawers keeps it away from the abrupt movements of the morning, which a narrow surface like a bedside table does not. If the wall behind is a flat colour, the profile of the head stands out with no help needed.
7. In the study, behind the desk
Anyone working from home spends hours in front of the same wall, and on a video call other people see that wall too. A head on a shelf behind the chair enters the frame as a definite presence. Better off centre relative to the person, not directly above the head of whoever is speaking.
8. At the top of the stairs or on the landing
Houses on two floors almost always have a blind landing, a space people pass through and nobody furnishes. A single piece on a wall bracket turns that spot into a destination. Stairs also offer something rare: you climb, so you see it first from below and then head on, and the face changes along the way.
9. As a lamp, when the light comes out of the piece
There is a version in the catalogue that should not be lit because it is the light source. The lamps mount the ceramic head under a fabric shade and reach a total height between 55 and 70 cm, roughly 22 to 27 inches, so they take the place of a table lamp while doing the work of a sculpture.
The mistakes that come back most
- The surface too low. A coffee table forces you to look down at the face, which is the one angle at which a face does not work.
- The wrong background. Patterned wallpaper or a window behind it erase the profile of the piece.
- The crowded group. Frames, candles, plants and head together on the same shelf produce confusion, not abundance.
- The edge of the furniture. A heavy piece resting flush with the edge is an accident waiting, above all where children or animals go past.
When there is more than one piece
Two heads in the same room do not automatically double the effect. If the finishes differ, the risk is that they compete for attention; if they are identical and side by side, they need a space and a symmetry that not every wall has.
For a collection that grows over time, the simplest road is to stay inside one decorative line and vary the sizes. It is the criterion the store collections are built on, and the reason a mother of pearl line put together in three different formats holds better than three pieces taken from three lines.
Common questions
Do I really need a clear wall?
No, but you need a background that does not compete. A wall in a flat colour is the easiest condition. On a decorated wall it still works if the piece comes from a plain line, for instance those in modern essentials, rather than from a richly decorated one.
Can it go in a bathroom or a kitchen?
Glazed terracotta handles humidity and steam without trouble. The limit in those rooms is space and airborne grease rather than the material: above a hob it gets dirty fast.
How many sizes does it take to furnish a room?
One, nearly always. The case where two are needed is when the surfaces sit at very different heights. On how the format is chosen in relation to the space there is how to choose the size of a testa di moro.
Does it work in a house with nothing Sicilian about it?
Yes, and often it gives more. In a neutral setting the piece is the one element bringing colour and a story, so it does not have to share attention with anything else.
Where to start
Of the nine situations above, choosing one and treating it well is worth more than distributing pieces around the house. The practical advice is to start with the room where you spend the most time, not the one guests see.
The heads in the catalogue are all modelled and decorated by hand in the workshop in Caltagirone, in Sicily, and every piece differs from the next by how it came about. You can see them all in the testa di moro collection.
